Arab fraud and corruption professionals' views in the Arabian Gulf
| Date | 12 July 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-03-2013-0017 |
| Pages | 338-347 |
| Published date | 12 July 2013 |
| Author | Khalid Farooq,Graham Brooks |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Arab fraud and corruption
professionals’ views in the
Arabian Gulf
Khalid Farooq
University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK, and
Graham Brooks
Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight Arab counter fraud and anti-corruption
professionals’ attitude towards fraud in the Arabian Gulf.
Design/methodology/approach – Five semi-structured interviews were carried out with counter
fraud anti-corruption employees in the public sector in the Arabian Gulf.
Findings – This paper shows that Arab counter fraud and corruption employees are critical of
present strategies in the Gulf region.
Research limitations/implications – One limitation is the limited number of people interviewed.
Originality/value – The paper provides interviews with key counter fraud and anti-corruption
personnel of Arab origin in the Gulf region.
Keywords Corruption, Fraud,Investigation, Audit, Police, Arab
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2003 Bahrain was
ranked 27 with a rating of 6.1, Qatar 32 with a rating of 5.6, Kuwait 36 with a rating of
5.3 and the UAE ranked 37 with a rating 5.2 (Transparency International, 2003); and
Saudi Arabia was ranked 71 with a rating of 3.4 in the Corruption Perception index
2004. The ranking however is of less importance than the perception rating, as the list
of nations on the index has increased since the Corruption Perception Index in 2003.
In the International Corruption Perception Index 2011 Bahrain have a rating of 5.1,
Kuwait 4.6, Saudi Arabia 4.4, the UAE 6.8 and Qatar 7.2 (Transparency International,
2011). Three of these – Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia appear to have increased the
integrity of the public sector, with a slight decrease for Bahrain and Kuwait. Awar e
that the perceptions index is open to methodological criticism (Brooks et al., 2013; Doig
and Levi, 2009; Levi, 2008; Me
´ndez and Sepu
´lveda, 2009) the index is nonetheless
instructive of the perception of supposed public sector corruption in the Gulf region.
However, rather than rely on this perception index as an indication of and
corruption we decided to interview Arab counter fraud and corruption professionals
employees in the Gulf region to establish Arab views of corruption. The main focus of
our attention was corruption rather than fraud as corruption is a wide-ranging
description of unethical legal acts to illegal criminal acts (Rose-Ackerman, 1978, 1999)
and we therefore attempted to review the many “acts” that fall under the umbrella of
corruption that damages international commerce (Glynn et al., 1997).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1359-0790.htm
Journal of Financial Crime
Vol. 20 No. 3, 2013
pp. 338-347
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-03-2013-0017
JFC
20,3
338
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